


Threads of Fate

by Seidoo_Reiki



Category: Magic Kaito, 名探偵コナン | Detective Conan | Case Closed
Genre: Bad Spelling & Grammar, First Meetings, Fix-It of Sorts, Gen, Gunshot Wounds, I don't know what else to tag, I love Hakuba Saguru, It continues!, Not Beta Read, Out of Character, Why Did I Write This?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-31
Updated: 2020-05-13
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:10:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23412085
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Seidoo_Reiki/pseuds/Seidoo_Reiki
Summary: Hakuba never believes in fate and yet, fate, as funny as it sounds, may be the best word to explain why he became tangled into this Kaito Kid shenanigans in the first place.OrHow Hakuba becomes tangled deep into Kaito Kid case and tries to uncover all the mysteries around him. If only Kaito Kid wants to cooperate with him, but sadly it won't be that easy
Comments: 22
Kudos: 45





	1. The Encounter Fate

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m a big fan of Hakuba Saguru. I’m not joking. He is sure an underappreciated character that needs to be explored more, and my imagination just runs wild. 
> 
> Okay, I know Magic Kaito has several different plots from the manga, the 2010 anime adaptation and 2014 anime adaption. It could be a little confusing. This one is based on the 2014 anime adaptation, Magic Kaito 1412. This is like an explanation of the plot hole (or you can think of it as an AU sort of plot). 
> 
> In this fanfic, we will skip the fact Hakuba finds Kid’s hair in the heist which leads him to be suspicious of Kaito. 
> 
> Warning: OOC, grammatical error
> 
> Disclaimer: Aoyama-sensei, please continue Magic Kaito and please show Hakuba more often, if it is mine, Hakuba will be the main character instead of Kaito haha

Life is full of mystery. Or in other words, the human itself is the mystery. While other living creatures are content to follow the natural law, humans rebel against anything, trying to figure out how this world works and hacks their life around.

But one of the most mysterious things for humans, maybe the so-called "fate".

What is fate actually? Is it something that has been decided beyond human power or it is the result of decision from humans themselves?

Because for Hakuba Saguru, he never really believes in fate. But strangely, his life is full of interconnected fate of threads tangled around. He never knows how to make out of that.

"Say, Hakuba-kun, why are you suspecting Kaito as Kid?"

Hakuba blinks his eyes. The girl beside her, Nakamori Aoko, who carries a pile of books from the library for the next lesson, is suddenly asking him an unexpected question. Hakuba adjusts the books in his hand while pondering.

'Why now?' he asks in his mind. He has been suspecting Kaito for Kid for months. Heck, he even enrolled in this very school just to follow Kaito around. He has been waiting for this question to come sooner, for him though, the momentum has lost.

"I have been waiting for someone to ask me that question honestly," he says. He knows that Aoko is suspecting her childhood friend too. No matter how many tricks Kaito has played to deceive her, the lingering doubt is never gone.

"Because there was Kid and Kaito in the same place, you know about that too Hakuba-kun! Aoko wants to clear her head, so she can stop imagining things."

He feels a little pity for his classmate. Kaito has almost driven her insane. Hakuba can relate to that feeling.

The reason for why he suspects Kaito as Kid, huh? He has prepared so many answers for this question, but now someone is asking him, Hakuba is rather speechless.

"It is fate, I guess?" Hakuba says while smiling.

Aoko tilts her head in confusion and Hakuba just ignores her.

It is simply too long to answer why and Hakuba is too paranoid if Kaito is listening to them from somewhere.

Fate, as funny as it sounds, may be the best word to explain why he became tangled into this Kaito Kid shenanigans in the first place.

o0o0o0o

As soon as Hakuba arrives at home after school, he enters his bedroom and pulls a big folder file. There is no title, rather strange for his neat freak nature.

As he opens the buttons of his gakuran uniform, he also opens the folder file.

Right, this is where all of this so-called 'fate' begins.

He traced a picture of a young boy with blonde hair and a middle aged man with a raven hair and a mustache.

Kuroba Toichi.

He wonders how Kaito will react if he knows that Hakuba has met his father before.

There is a clipping newspaper beside the photo, written in English.

"A Famous Japanese Magician Solved A Stolen €10.000 Worth Jewelry Case."

Hakuba laughs a bit. Right, it was his first unofficial case. Why unofficial? Because he asked someone to help deliver the deduction for him.

Even though Hakuba can barely recall the man's face, it was an unforgettable event.

**Flash Back**

_Hakuba sighs, he watches the commotion around him with a tired face. He was never fond of parties, especially grown up parties. It is his aunt's friend's birthday party, it is held in a big ballroom of a hotel. The reason why Hakuba is there is because supposedly there will be some show from a famous magician and his aunt brought him along._

_But before the party started, the birthday woman screamed that her very expensive and specifically made for this party, a necklace, had gone._

_Now there are police, confused and upset guests, and bewildered and angry family members._

_If it is possible, Hakuba wants to go home. But since the jewelry is gone, the police conducts searches throughout the building to find it and of course, the guests can't go home._

_Hakuba hopes he can find things to keep him entertained. But the only interesting thing here is the case itself. He is only 8 at the moment, he wonders if he can sneak in to the crime scene unnoticed._

_His aunt is too busy chatting and gossiping with her friends anyway._

_The guard of the crime scene is not too tight, it happens in the dressing room beside the hall. Hakuba slips in when the officer on guard is busy talking with his friend._

_It is his first time doing something like this, if he gets caught, he will get severe punishment from his family. But Hakuba wants to try to deduce things just like his favorite character, Sherlock Holmes. This may be his only chance to try the real deal, so he decides to be brave and starts to inspect the crime scene._

_Unexpectedly, nothing looks weird. Everything is in order, he had always imagines the crime scene as a disarray room. It is as if nothing had happens here._

_He looks at the bust up mannequin on the other side of the wall. That is where the necklace is supposed to be. His aunt's friend was supposed to wear it after she finished her makeup. There is also a long table vanity with several chairs. The table is full with makeup equipment. And there is a big fish tank in the corner of the room._

_Hakuba walks around as quietly as possible and he feels like he steps on something._

_He picks it up. A small crystal? Hakuba knows this is just ordinary glass crystal though, not a jewelry. What is it doing on the floor?_

_"Boy, what are you doing here?"_

_Hakuba gasps and turns to see the policeman. He smiles awkwardly and runs away before he can ask more things._

_"You can't go inside again!" the police shouts._

_Hakuba runs to the end of the hallway and catches his breath. He feels bad for being , but he also feels excited. He examines the crystal again in wonder. This is really small, a pin head size. Someone could mistake this as a real jewelry._

_But from the picture he sneaked to peek before, the necklace is like a web full of white and blue diamonds._

_But, this is only an ordinary glass crystal, he still wonders where this comes from._

_"It looks like some crystals seeds for glass flowers."_

_Hakuba turns around and finds a middle aged man smiling at him. He has an Asian face and Hakuba can hear some strange accent in his words._

_"Crystal seeds?" Hakuba asks back._

_"Ah sorry, I don't know what it is in English. You see, just like this glass flowers here," the man points out at a vase full of flowers made from glass just beside him. He puts his hand inside and pulls off many grains of crystals._

_"These crystals are made this way to help the glass flowers stand better in the vase."_

_Hakuba blinks and approaches the vase. The man gives him some of the small crystals._

_"But these crystals look like rice... This one is different..." Hakuba shows the crystal he picked earlier. But the man laughs._

_"Rice huh? I guess it looks like that... What is your name?"_

_Hakuba feels rather reluctant to give his name, but he answers it anyway. "Hakuba Saguru."_

_"Japanese?" the man asks. Hakuba nods._

_"Half Japanese."_

_"Ah I see, then do you understand Japanese?" the man asks again. Hakuba shakes his head fast._

_"No, just some words..."_

_"Okay, okay, lets just talk in English, Saguru-kun."_

_He never hears someone call his name like that, but Hakuba shrugs that aside._

_"Just like you said, this crystal is different. It almost looks like diamond, it is as if this is from a fake jewelry," the man inspects the crystal in Hakuba's hand._

_Hakuba nods. He doesn't think his aunt's friend ordered a special made fake jewelry though, her family is a wealthy one. Hakuba can't imagine a reason why there should be fake jewelry in the dressing room._

_"I see... Are you playing detective?"_

_Hakuba blinks his eyes and turns to see the man smiling again at him._

_The little boy blushes a little, he never imagines someone will call him detective. Even though it is in a playful way._

_"If you need help, just ask me. I will be around, I have to do something. Good luck, little detective."_

_Hakuba just watches the man walk away. Hakuba is never really fond of adults, but that man feels different. Like, he is very cool but also somewhat fun? Hakuba can't describe it well._

_He shakes his head, he needs to focus on the case now._

_He needs to think in order first._

_His aunt's friend noticed her necklace gone around 2 hours ago. She said it was still there when she dressed and did her make up. There were two other people in that room, her assistant and makeup artist._

_Then the assistant went out from the room and came back to inform her of something wrong at the arrangement of the party. So his aunt's friend came out from the dressing room for around 45 minutes._

_But her father came to the room 5 minutes after she was gone and said that the necklace was still there. He came to use the phone in the dressing room to call his wife. The makeup artist went to the bathroom for 30 minutes._

_Then the makeup artist came back and prepared makeup tools while the father was still on the phone. After the father ended the call and went outside, the make up artist came out from the dressing room again to find the birthday woman at the same time, both of them said that the necklace was still there. The make up artist and his aunt's friend were back in the room in 5 minutes but then both of them noticed that the necklace was gone._

_After that, people tried to look for the necklace for 30 minutes before finally they called the police. The police came, they searched the whole building and did body search on all the guests but found nothing. From the guard of the hall, he said no one came out from the hall. The emergency exit is also not far from the lift beside the guard._

_How could someone steal a necklace so fast and hide it in just several minutes?_

_The people start to say that there must be some outsider stealing the necklace. But..._

_Hakuba walks around again. He doesn't know what to search but he just tries to find anything weird. The police can't find the necklace so maybe it is also impossible for him to find it by himself._

_His eyes catch something blinking below a table. He picks it. A screw. Hakuba tilts his head._

_Why does he keep finding random things? He believes a nice hotel like this will clean the hotel throughout several times a day, so there is no reason something like this is lying around._

_Hakuba looks around, is the screw from around here?_

_He finds a big air ventilation on the wall. There is one screw gone. It looks like the screw in his hand matches up with the rest of the screw._

_He has seen it in the movies, people crawling around in the air ventilation. Does the culprit hide the jewelry there?_

_But, in only 5 minutes? To unscrew, to crawl, to hide it quite far, then to crawl back and screw it again, Hakuba isn't sure someone can do it in 5 minutes._

_And more some police have tried to search the necklace here too, they went quite long and found nothing._

_Though, Hakuba suspected they didn't try to crawl to the end of the air ventilation, but then again, it is impossible to hide it so far away in the air ventilation in just 5 minutes._

_Hakuba sighs. No, he hits a dead end. Like what he expected, being a detective is harder than in novels._

_"Are you giving up?"_

_Hakuba jumps out in surprise. He turns to see that man again._

_"I can't figure out the trick...," Hakuba admits it._

_"You are right, it is quite hard," the man agrees. "Maybe you also need to look at the people too, not just some non-living objects."_

_Hakuba frowns, why does this man act as if he knows how to be a detective? But Hakuba follows his suggestion anyway._

_He doesn't think he can ask any people questions though._

_He finds the father of the birthday woman in the corner of the hall. He looks tired and he applies some eye drops to his eyes._

_Hakuba is staring at the eye drops._

_"Are you wondering what this is?" he asks. He is a round and big old man, maybe around 50-60 years old._

_Hakuba nods a little._

_"This is a medicine. You see, when you are getting old, you can't see very well. The doctor said I need to get surgery after this party, but now that the necklace is gone, I think I will be busy for awhile..."_

_Can't see well?_

_Hakuba stares at the small crystal in his hand._

_There are also some glass flowers at the crime scene. And then, a fish tank with many rocks inside it..._

_That's it!_

_Hakuba has figured it out._

_But oh no, he didn't think there was solid evidence. The crystal in his hand and the screw is too small to detect for fingerprints. How could he do it..._

_Hakuba approaches the dressing room again, it seems the officers become restless because they are hitting the dead end too. Hakuba needs more evidence but he isn't sure he can slip into the crime scene again. If his deduction is right, there should be more evidence, visible from naked eyes._

_"I guess, you need some help?"_

_Hakuba turns to see the man already beside him. Why does this man always appear unnoticed?_

_"Yeah, I need to get more evidence from the crime scene."_

_"Let me help with that."_

_The man approaches the policemen and talks to them, Hakuba can't hear him but then the policemen run to the other side in a hurry._

_"See, let's check the inside," the man smiles. Hakuba thinks that the strange man told police some lies. Would he be alright later?_

_Nonetheless, Hakuba enters the crime scene once again with the man and walks to the glass flower vase. Hakuba puts it in his hand and tries to find what he wants._

_He finds more round pin head sized crystals. He puts his hand deeper and his fingers feel something weird._

_"What is this?" asks Hakuba. It looks like a nail, but it is really colorful and full of ornaments._

_"I think this is a fake nail, or artificial nail. Women like to use this a lot, especially for nail art," that man answers._

_Ah, Hakuba has seen his mother and aunts wearing them. But to think this is inside the vase, it could be a good solid evidence. Hakuba jumps and runs to the fish tank. He can see some rocks shining inside. Hakuba smiles, just what he expected._

_Now, he needs more evidence about the artificial nail._

_"I think there should be a photo for that."_

_Hakuba gasps, that man smiles at him, like he can read his thoughts._

_"There is a photographer here, he kept taking pictures of everyone before the police arrived, so I think he has what you want."_

_Hakuba is a little confused. He doesn't explain anything and yet it seems this old man follows his way of thought. It is a little scary. Or maybe, he already solved the trick before Hakuba did?_

_"I will find the photographer, then you can have a deduction show for everyone, okay Saguru-kun?" he says._

_"Wait, there is one thing!" Hakuba shouts, to make the man stop leaving. "There is one thing I can't understand, this trick won't work if Mr. Herald didn't use the phone in this room... such a coincidence like that... isn't it too risky?"_

_The man smiles, like he already knows everything. To be honest, it makes Hakuba pissed a little. It feels like Hakuba has squeezed all the cells in his brain to make this deduction, while the man does it in a breeze._

_"Someone said to me, as a detective, you can't believe in 'coincidence'. You really need to prove whether it is really a coincidence or not."_

_Hakuba blinks his eyes, trying to absorb that man's words._

_"You see, Mr. Herald's wife is traveling around Europe right now. Mr. Herald always calls her at a fixed time, every night, using the phone, because he can't see words in the cell phone really well. The nearest phone from the hall is in this dressing room, now, can we call that a coincidence?"_

_Hakuba shakes his head. "And there is one more thing," the boy says with a troubled face._

_"What is it?"_

_"I can't deliver the deduction to everyone. It is impossible. I'm only a kid."_

_The man stares at Hakuba for a while, and the blonde boy almost cowers at those sharp eyes. Hakuba can't explain his family situation. The real reason why if his family finds out what he is doing, he will receive harsh punishment._

_"Okay... I understand. It is my first time playing detective, but I have no choice I guess... So let's talk about our deduction, let's see if we guessed the same thing."_

_o0o0o0o_

_"The culprit is you, Ms. Sarah Smith, aka, the makeup artist for this party."_

_Hakuba watches the man deliver the deduction just like a climax in a mystery drama. That man knows how to do it even though he said it is his first time. Does he copy someone else he knows?_

_"I'm not the culprit! Are you insane? The necklace was still there when I came out from the dressing room with Mr. Herald. No way I come back to steal the necklace again in just 5 minutes and hide in somewhere else where even the police can't find it."_

_The man smiles, with such confidence. Hakuba watches him in awe._

_"Of course not. Because the necklace has been gone way before you and Mr. Herald came out together from the dressing room. Right, it was when you said you went to the bathroom for 30 minutes!"_

_The suspect is shocked. The suspense is real. Hakuba guesses, the real deal is much more interesting than fiction._

_"No way!"_

_"It is a simple trick. This is what you did. You have prepared a fake necklace beforehand. Then, you also have planned some trouble at the party so Ms. Katie would come out from the dressing room. Then, you switch the real necklace with the fake necklace before Mr. Herald comes in as you predicted. You see, Mr. Herald has a bad eyesight, so he couldn't tell whether the necklace is real or not. Then you come out from the dressing room, you hide the necklace somewhere else. I think 30 minutes is a long time to hide things in a faraway place, like in the air ventilation."_

_As if it has been planned before, a policeman comes out from the air ventilation with a little bag in his hand. "Inspector, I found this necklace in a really deep place in the air ventilation!"_

_The suspect is cornered. "But you don't have proof that I'm the one who did that!"_

_The man smiles again. "When you come out from the dressing room for the second time, I believe you set some thread to the door to pull out the fake necklace. It is already made to be easily broken away and scattered to many places. When you entered the room again with Ms. Katie, you pretended to search the necklace while in fact you were hiding the scattered fake jewelry. Right, you hide the blue crystal ones in the fish tank, people won't see it with all those stone decorations. And the white crystal ones inside the vase."_

_The suspected woman grits her teeth as the man is talking. "But, I bet you hid the fake jewelry in a hurry, so you didn't notice that one of your artificial nails came off and got into the vase."_

_The man shows an artificial nail. The woman shows that her fingers are free from any kind of nail art. "No need to argue more. I already found some photos that showed you use this particular artificial nail with a very distinct nail art. Unless you can explain how your artificial nail can end up deep inside the vase, then I guess, you can't deny that you are the culprit, Ms. Katie."_

_The woman's knee suddenly gives up and she falls to the floor._

_Hakuba watches everything with twinkling eyes. He has never seen something as cool as this before._

_There is a commotion of police and angry guests surrounding the man and the culprit, Hakuba just smiles and turns around. The case is over, finally he can go home._

_"Congratulations for your deduction, little detective."_

_The man, once again, has appeared right beside him. He pats Hakuba's hair gently. Hakuba feels embarrassed._

_"I think you can do it well even without me," the boy says._

_"I only can guess how the trick works, but you are the one who found all the proofs. You are the detective in this case, I am only able to see it from a different perspective."_

_Hakuba's face reddened more. Then the man suddenly pulls out a handkerchief then when he pulls the handkerchief away, there is a miniature medal in his hand. "For your very first case, congratulations. It is a little weird coming from me, but I think you can be a great detective, Little Holmes."_

_Hakuba picks the small medal and watches the man smile at him. Finally, Hakuba smiles back at him._

_“Thank you.”_

**Flash Back End**

Hakuba pulls the drawer below his desk. He picks the small medal, it is made from a coin with some makeshift fabrics. To think that Kuroba Toichi is the one who pushed him to be a detective, no one would believe that. 

And more, Hakuba even forgot that man’s name before. He just knew him as a magician. Once he got older and became a better detective, he finally tried to find out the man identity that turned out to be Kaito’s father. 

What kind of fate is that? Hakuba smiles to himself. 

He turns the page and he frowns. Two whole pages full of articles about Kuroba Toichi’s sudden death. He was devastated to find out that the magician had passed away before Hakuba could say thanks. 

But the weirdest thing happens next. It was also by chance. He only passed some free time by watching a show about some unsolved case. Then, the show was about Kaitou Kid. Hakuba can still remember that exact episode. 

Back then, it was just after Kuroba Toichi’s 7th death anniversary. And the show also mentioned that it has been 7th year since Kaitou Kid's last appearance. What a coincidence. 

But, just like how Toichi has told him before, Hakuba will always prove whether it is really a coincidence or not. Because, not only the matching time, but also the fact that Kaitou Kid used magic to steal, and Kuroba Toichi was a famous skillful magician. Not to mention, 75% heists happened in Japan. It was way too many coincidences to be ignored. 

And then, Hakuba opened and skipped some pages, it was full of Kuroba Toichi’s data and he arrived at Hakuba’s messy scribbles of deduction. No one can understand this beside himself. He only did this to get rid of suspicion of Kuroba Toichi being a Kaitou Kid but only became more suspicious. 

He matched the time when Kaitou Kid has heist outside Japan with the time Kuroba Toichi held a magic show outside Japan. 

And the matching resulted in a 65% match. It is still too suspicious to be a mere coincidence. 

He also tried to record whether Toichi ever held a magic show in Japan at the same time with Kid’s heist and the result only showed 15%. 

When he first did this, he didn’t know how to make it out of it. Kuroba Toichi was dead, Kaitou Kid had disappeared. He guessed he wouldn’t know the truth, not to mention he was in England so it was hard to conduct deeper research about that. It would be forever a mystery. Or that was what he thought. 

Hakuba skips some pages again.

But then a year later, Kid showed up again. 

Then, the reason why Hakuba suspects Kaito as the Kaitou Kid?

He opens the previous page, where there is some article about Kuroba Toichi identity, works and family. Of course there is also Kuroba Kaito listed there. 

At first, Hakuba wonders why after 8th year, Kid showed up again? Why did he need 8 years to come back? Does he find another reason to keep stealing again? Did he need 8 years to be able to steal again?

Then again, no one can make sure whether the new Kid is the same Kid from 8 years ago. It wasn’t too hard to copy his style, even his trademark sign card is easy to be fabricate. 

But then again, the same question, even for copycat, why 8 years? People almost forget about Kaitou Kid, there are many other thefts around the world to use as a copycat source. 

Yeah, it hit Hakuba hard when he noticed that Kuroba Toichi’s son, Kuroba Kaito is the same age as him, it means he is 17 years old now. 

Just like how Hakuba has blossomed into a better detective, it was a decent age to continue parent’s heritage. 

Hakuba just can’t ignore it anymore. So, he decided to go to Japan to investigate on his own.

His suspicion becomes solid when he finds out how skillful Kuroba Kaito is as a magician. He even moved into the same school, so he can prove his suspicion. 

Hakuba sighs and closes the file. 

He doesn’t think anyone can understand nor follow his way of thought. 

It is true that it can be everything just a coincidence and he is wrong this whole time. But, first, like always, he needs to prove whether it is really just a coincidence or not. 

If he hadn’t met Kuroba Toichi back then, he won’t be a detective just like he is now, and then he won’t be suspicious about Kuroba Toichi as Kaitou Kid and he won’t even bother to move into a highschool in Japan and chase the current Kaitou Kid. 

What a strange tangled fate. 

There is just one point though. 

He doesn’t mind if he is wrong, even, deep in his heart, he wishes he was wrong with all of this suspicions. Because it will be hard for him to accept the fact that the man who inspired him to be a detective is actually Kaitou Kid. Then not only that, he also has to put his son behind the bar. 

“I hope I will find the answer to why we have to meet that day, Toichi-san. What kind of fate will wait for me after this? Somehow, I’m not too eager to find out,” Hakuba mumbles with heavy eyes. 

He knows he needs to do what he can do, even though he isn’t sure what he wants to do at this point. But, maybe, he will find the answer later. The answer of tangled fate that caught him to solve someone’s mystery. 

**To Be Continued**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I have this whole story inside my head about how Hakuba will get more tangled into many other characters’ problems (Kaitou, Conan and Ai). It will be super long and I don’t know if I can do it. Lets see if anyone is interested to see the continuation of this story. Maybe I will consider continuing it.


	2. The Discovery of Hidden Truth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It continues! I decided to continue it. You guys, don't you have any complain with my bad grammar? But well, I try my best to write this without beta reader. If you are interested to help me, please PM me
> 
> Anyway about this chapter, things get interesting

Coincidence, it means a remarkable concurrence of events or circumstances without apparent causal connection. Hakuba wonders if coincidence could be called “fate”. Even though as a detective, he can’t just so easily believe in coincidence. But, coincidence definitely exists.

Just like what happens to him right now.

He knows that Kid tends to target him, more than any other person, during heist. He didn’t expect the phantom Kid would lock him into a closet even before the heist started. Such a childish trick, Hakuba feels ashamed to fall into such an easy trap.

Right now, the museum is almost deserted. Most of the police officers are chasing Kid outside right now. Hakuba doesn’t even bother to follow them, since the chance they can capture Kid once the heist is done is pretty low. Hakuba chooses to inspect the disarray museum.

Even though he missed the entire heist, but he sort of can imagine what happened during the heist. He smiles to see many splattered paints around the museum, it might be Kid’s new trick to paint every officer available with some kind of paint bomb.

Since Kid is using his famous hang glider to escape and no window is broken, he must be escaped from the roof. Hakuba trails the disaster to the rooftop. With the amount of confetti, paints and even glitter around him, the English detective feels a bit glad to miss the heist.

Hakuba embraces his body tighter once he goes outside. The rooftop is quite cold and windy. The trails of paints are still there. He follows them until the fence of the rooftop. He can see the twinkling light of police cars on the streets from above here.

Since the rooftop is dark, Hakuba uses his phone as a flashlight to see the rooftop better. Kid sometimes returns the jewel immediately, so it is better to check the surroundings carefully.

“Hm?” Hakuba sees something, and it isn’t the jewel. He crouches down and traces the floor.

A bullet hole on the floor, and it is still new.

Hakuba doesn’t think he heard any gunshot earlier. He believes he has sharp hearing as a detective, but did he miss it? Hakuba doubts that, even when he was in the closet, he could still hear all the commotion around the museum. Did Inspector Nakamori fire his gun again? But, almost no police officers use guns with silencers, unless in a special case.

Hakuba still can’t believe he missed hearing the gunshot. Even if the heist is always noisy, almost all police officers will be silent once they hear a gunshot sound. Unless Kid used other explosive materials that cover the gunshot sound, Hakuba didn’t hear any of them either.

With a confused face, Hakuba takes some pictures of the gunshot. He will check about this with Inspector Nakamori later.

O0o0o0o

“The report isn’t done yet, Hakuba. You know the report takes so long to finish.”

Hakuba nods slightly, he knows. Especially with Kid heist, too many things to be written with full details. Hakuba knows that the report won’t be done in less than 24 hours after the heist, still he tried his luck coming into the police department once the school was over. But it seems, he has no luck.

“I’m sorry to rush you, I missed most of the heist, so I’m eager to read the report to know what had happened,” Hakuba flashes his smile.

Inspector Nakamori looks pissed, but Hakuba has long believed that it is his normal expression. Hakuba can still see some of the remains of blue paint on his hair. He must have a rough night.

“Like everyone else told you, Kid used a sleeping gas bomb to steal the gem, then he used many paint bombs to hinder the rest of the police officers, once we caught on to him on the rooftop, he had used his damned hang glider. End of story.”

From his expression, Inspector Nakamori still looks pissed that Hakuba missed most of the heist. It isn’t Hakuba’s choice to be locked inside a closet either, so it isn’t his fault.

“Did you use your gun last night?” Hakuba asks. That is the reason why he is coming here, he wants to find the truth of the bullet hole he found.

“Huh? I didn’t use any last night, were you dreaming or something?”

Hakuba blinks his eyes a few times. That is weird.

“At Kid’s heist, who else was carrying a gun beside you, Inspector Nakamori?” he asks again. He already knows the answer of this question, he just wants to make sure.

“Hm… beside me, two of my juniors. But, they don’t always carry it during Kid’s heist. Most of the time, just me, you already know it.”

Hakuba is silent once again. He puts his hand below his chin.

“Now, if you are done asking questions, please go away, I have a ton of reports to be written now!” Inspector Nakamori shouts at him.

“Thank you for your time Inspector Nakamori,” Hakuba turns with a smile, he knows that he only makes the inspector more pissed but Hakuba doesn’t care.

He walks into different departments. It is good that he has brought something beforehand since he expects this will happen.

O0o0o0o

“Kid’s heist photos last night? But, we haven’t sorted them yet…”

Hakuba isn’t really familiar with the forensic department, but this is where police gather the evidence from criminal cases. If the report isn’t done yet, then Hakuba knows he can get some other proofs here. Even though maybe some of the forensic team haven’t done their investigation yet, like gathering all the footprints, or some leftover from the paint bomb, Hakuba only needs the crime scene photography.

“It is okay, just give me the raw files, and if it is possible, all of the raw photo files from the previous heists too,” Hakuba shows the officer his external hard disk. He knows that there will be tons of photos from Kid’s heist, so a normal USB disk can’t cut it.

“Are you sure? We still have the raw files too, but there will be thousands of them.”

Hakuba knows that there are tons of photos that need to be taken from each Kid’s heist. Every bomb, confetti, even glitter need to be documented.

"It is okay, just copy everything please," he says. Hakuba is famous as a very detailed detective, so he is sure everyone already knows about that by now.

"I will copy the raw files from last night heist, for the other heist you can just borrow the CD files. There are so many of them, we have enough to fill the folder to the brim," the officer stands and gets a big folder case from the cabinet.

"Thank you very much, I will return them once I'm done copy everything," Hakuba receives the folders, it is quite heavy.

"Sure, it is good if you can find something else," the officer gives back the external hard disk to Hakuba.

Hakuba smiles, well, it doesn't like he will find something else. Maybe, it is more likely he will find something missing from the photos, he hopes he is wrong though.

o0o0o0o

Once Hakuba gets back home, he turns on his computer immediately and browses all the raw file photos from the heist last night.

But…

"Nothing… how can it be…" Hakuba mumbles in worry. He can't find any bullet hole photos from the raw files. He has browsed around the photo folders for exactly 10 times and he found nothing.

He can't believe that the forensic department missed a bullet hole evidence. Even Hakuba himself could find the bullet hole just using his phone, so how could a professional with all of their equipment miss it?

But Inspector Nakamori also has no clue about gunshot sound, no police officers mentioned about it and it seems the forensic department has no clue either.

It is almost like Hakuba is dreaming.

Hakuba turns back into the bullet hole photos from his phone. It is real, the photos are the proof. The quality might be not really good because of low lighting and he only used his phone, but unmistakably, it is a bullet hole.

So how did everyone miss this beside him?

Hakuba put his hand under his chin again.

He needs to go back to the museum tomorrow.

He will take a better picture with a decent camera and show it to Inspector Nakamori.

For some reason, he feels a bit uneasy. All of this is too weird, even for Kid's heist standard. Hakuba doesn't understand what is going on. It feels like there is something dark and huge lurking around the corner of his mind.

He hopes it is just him being paranoid.

o0o0o0o

"Is it being renovated!? This soon!?"

Hakuba can't even mask his surprise. He doesn' t care that he just ruined his cool demeanor, because he is truly shocked.

"Yeah, the police say they are done with the crime scene, so we are free to do fixing and renovating. You see, Kid's heist did much damage to the museum."

The museum director looks honest. But still, in less than 48 hours after the heist, the museum is being renovated, it is way too soon in his opinion. Sometimes the crime scene will be preserved for days, sometimes even months depending on how the case will get judged or not.

He knows Kid's heist falls into a special case. It is impossible to preserve all the museums from Kid's heist for so long. Museums are a business too. And it is still a long way to go since the police still can't capture Kid too, let alone take him to court. Unless the investigation can’t be done quickly for a certain reason, like unsolved murder case. But for Kaito Kid case, the investigation usually will be done in less than 48 hours.

But still…

"And you are starting it from the rooftop?" Hakuba asks again in confusion. The most damaged place is the showcase room where the gem previously displayed. To start from the rooftop where it isn't allowed visitors to come in is a little bit…

"The rooftop floor has been quite damaged since a long time ago so I used this chance to renovate almost the entire museum. And the construction people said, they need to get the rooftop done first since we have good weather today," the museum director explains.

It makes sense, but it still doesn't sit well for Hakuba.

The bullet hole is now gone forever.

"Do you need something as proof for capturing Kid? I'm sorry that I renovate the museum in a hurry…"

"No, it is okay. Don't worry," Hakuba brushes that older man's apology.

It isn't okay though.

No one knows about the bullet hole beside him. No one heard a gunshot sound. No police officer saw the bullet hole. No proof beside Hakuba's photos. And now the crime scene is being renovated.

What is going on? How could this happen? In all his life as a detective, he never finds a situation as bizarre as this.

It is almost like…

There is someone who used a gun on Kid.

And that someone covered all the traces perfectly.

Too perfectly.

This scenario is only possible if that person has some help from the police department. In short, there is an infiltrator in the police department.

Hakuba wants to laugh at his own thinking.

No way, just no way. Something like that could be possible if Kid's attacker is some kind of big mafia or something.

Hakuba gulps, but that is the most reasonable explanation.

Or it could be all Kid doing.

That is less likely. Kid never brought a gun by himself, yeah he could use a gun but usually he stole it from his enemy. And there is no reason why he used a gun on the rooftop last night. Once the officers reached the top, Kid had flight using his hang glider.

So, Kid has an enemy that uses a gun to attack him and then that enemy covers every evidence possible.

The work is really clean, so clean that it could only be done by a professional big mafia group or something.

Hakuba looks up to the sky, on his hand there is a printed photo of a bullet hole he found.

He just stumbled into something very big, didn't he?

o0o0o0o

"Hakuba-kun, are you okay?"

Hakuba snaps and turns into Aoko. She looks worried. Oh right, he must have some dark eyebags right now. And he also keeps zoning out during class, so unlike him. Well, he woke up for the whole night, pondering every possible deduction about a bullet hole he found.

And he is still stuck with the same deduction, about the big mafia group.

"It is okay, Aoko-san. I just lost some sleep, that's all," Hakuba smiles at her.

"Don't bother with him, Aoko. He is probably down because he failed to capture Kid once again."

Hakuba turns to his other classmate, Kuroba Kaito. The boy looks like he usually does. Nothing abnormal, as normal as Kaito can get anyway. Hakuba can't believe that guy just got gunned from some enemy in the previous heist. But then again, he always behaves so normal after heist. What a good poker face.

"What is with that stare?" Kaito asks him. Hakuba blinks, he didn’t mean to stare that much.

“Sorry, I’m just wondering what kind of life you are living,” Hakuba says with a smirk.

“Ah, am I hearing ‘I suspect you as Kaito Kid’ behind those words, or is it just me?” Kaito snarls back.

Hakuba just smiles and turns to Aoko. “Nah, I’m also pondering what kind of life I am living right now. Maybe I got things bigger than what I can handle, but it doesn’t like I can just to turn a blind eye on that.”

Aoko tilts her head a little bit. “Is it a case? Sounds though,” she simply says.

On the side of his vision, Hakuba can see Kaito gives him a look.

Right, the one who knows about the bullet hole isn’t only Hakuba, but also Kaito Kid himself and the culprit.

If only he can just ask Kid about that, his job will be easier. But then again, being a detective isn’t an easy job. And Hakuba will go all out for this bizarre case.

o0o0o0o

No matter how Hakuba thinks, renovating a former crime scene in less than 48 hours after a heist is too soon. To be honest, he even found some museums doing a ‘Kaito Kid’s Heist Tour’ after the heist, they preserve the crime scene as much as possible, explaining what happens during the heist and Kid fans love them.

And more, usually it takes a day or more to make an agreement with the construction company. Not to mention, the construction company needs some planning too. The only possible explanation of why the renovation is done so fast is to cover the bullet hole evidence.

Hakuba is printing a list of museum and gem owners that got targeted by Kid in the past year. “This is the list Baaya, sorry for troubling you,” he gives the list to his caretaker.

“So, I just need to ask people on this list about when they did the renovation of their place?” Baaya asks him. Hakuba nods with a serious face.

“I count on you, Baaya, please tell me when you are done,” he says. His caretaker bows to him and exits his room. Hakuba still has to browse all of the raw photo files of Kid heists to find whether there are documented unknown bullet holes or not.

A few hours and a few cups of tea later, Hakuba massages his temple. The forensic officer wasn’t kidding about thousands of photos of Kid’s heists. There are 7648 photos of them, they make Hakuba's eyes seeing stars now.

He decides to take a break and opens the windows. The night has fallen, it seems this night will be a sleepless night too since he needs to browse all the photos a few more times to make sure he doesn’t miss anything.

As far as his investigation goes, he doesn’t find any undocumentted bullet hole. There is a case where there is a victim got shot during Red Tear heist and the culprit is unknown, but that’s it. Maybe because there are some witnesses at that time, so it is hard to erase the trace. Killing all the witnesses will be way too suspicious too, it will only get the police's attention.

Even though Kid has many enemies before, none of them use guns either. The only recorded shoots during Kid’s heist are from Kid himself or Inspector Nakamori. The photos match with the reports too, so Hakuba never finds it strange.

But now…

There is a knock on the door. “Saguru-bochama?”

“Yes, what is it Baaya?”

The door opens and his caretaker comes in. “I finished calling all of the owner of the jewels and the museums, this is the list of when they did renovation in their place after heist.”

“Thank you very much Baaya,” Hakuba says with a smile.

“And please don’t forget to eat dinner, should I bring the dinner here?”

Hakuba’s smile grows softer. “Yes please, you really know me.”

Baaya smiles fondly at him then exits the room again. Hakuba sits while reading the list. He is amazed at his caretaker to do this so fast, she is sure used at being his assistant.

His worry becomes reality when he reads the list carefully. Like what he feared, there are some other places that did the renovation so quick, just like the previous museum. They did the renovation in less than 2 days after the heist. There are 5 other museums and owners of the jewels that did that.

Now, he has 5 places to go to tomorrow. It will be quite a long investigation.

“Dinner is ready, Saguru-bochama.”

“Yes, Baaya.”

Hakuba just hopes he doesn’t lose anymore sleep. Someone will scold him harshly if his dark eye bags become permanent.

o0o0o0o

Ever since Kaito became the Kaitou Kid, he has had some kind of sense into weird things. Even though Jii's intuition is sharper than him, Kaito also has some intuition himself. Like, he gets certain feelings randomly.

For now, Kaito knows Hakuba is up to something and it is bad.

The London Detective has been nodding in the class, with dark eye bags, and lost interest at bickering with him. It has been since Kaito locked him into a closet since the previous heist. He is sure Hakuba doesn’t have claustrophobia, so Kaito doesn’t think he makes any mistake.

Well, he is glad he put more effort into keeping the police away, because like he feared, Snake came to him on the rooftop. He managed to dodged all the shots before he jumped into the sky.

And like usual, the police officers have no clue at all.

And Hakuba himself…

Kaito hopes that British detective won’t get any clue at all.

Kaito doesn't know what Hakuba will do if he finds out about… everything. His feelings about that blonde are still somewhat mixed. Kaito doesn’t really hate him, sure Hakuba is annoying as hell. And different from that shrunken little detective, Kaito can’t relate to his detective classmate at all.

What is with his obsession at chasing Kid? There are many other cases to be solved around the world, why him? And why did he move into his class too? Not to mention his accusation of him being Kaitou Kid, in front of other people too. Kaito has enough people suspecting him, Hakuba just makes his life harder.

Well, he does make things interesting, but sometimes Kaito hopes Hakuba will just leave him alone.

But it doesn’t mean Kaito wants Hakuba to find out anything about that weird organization. They aren’t small group criminals, they are really dangerous. How they managed to hide all those shots from the police officers still make Kaito feel bewildered. Not to mention how they get more aggressive now. Kaito doesn’t want anyone to get injured because of him.

Hakuba turns and meets Kaito’s eyes.

Both of them are equally surprised. Kaito turns away with a distasteful face and Hakuba turns back his attention to the teacher before nodding off again.

Well, it isn't like Kaitou Kid is the only case Hakuba handled, Kaito hopes he is wrong about this bad feeling.

o0o0o0o

Hakuba is a very detailed person. Not only he recorded times into milliseconds, he likes to prepare things a lot beforehand. Maybe, he is also a little bit paranoid. He knows that Kaito Kid heist is mostly safe, but from his undergoing investigation about the bullet hole, it seems he is too lenient about that.

His father doesn’t say anything when Hakuba asks for a bullet proof vest, not like he ever asks him anything about Hakuba’s agenda.

The stun gun may be a little overkill.

He requested the gun model for this one. The one that British police used, but this very model is still a prototype. His uncle said this one is easy to short circuit if handled roughly, but the advantage is that this one uses an electric bullet that shocks the target, without any wire attached. The shock is quite high, it could paralyze the target for a while. And there are only two bullets available for each cartridge.

The stun gun is quite small, about the same as a small gun, so Hakuba can hide it inside his blazer.

Hakuba wonders if Kid ever wears a bulletproof vest.

Based on how agile he moves, probably not.

Hakuba pats his chest, under his usual shirt and blazer, there is a stun gun and bulletproof vest. He feels a little weird.

“You look so tense Hakuba-kun.”

Hakuba snaps again, he turns to Inspector Nakamori. Damn, he keeps zoning out these days. Is he so shaken about the probability of Kid’s enemy being a huge organization that has infiltrated the police department?

Based on how the bulletproof vest hinders his movement, probably yes.

He feels like he can’t trust anyone right now, including the police. It makes him feel restless and paranoid.

“I’m sorry, I don’t get enough sleep these days,” he answers, half truth.

Inspector Nakamori usually hates his arrogant and smug demeanor, but to think even that stern inspector looks at him with worry, Hakuba feels he has to gather himself.

Oh right, maybe because that inspector is also a father who has a daughter with the same age as Hakuba, maybe he is a lot sharper with this kind of thing. Hakuba’s eyes softened. He is a little bit envious of Aoko, he thinks Inspector Nakamori is quite a good father.

Maybe, he can trust Inspector Nakamori, a little bit.

“I’m a little bit afraid that I will get myself into a big problem, bigger than what I can handle. But I have decided to confront all of this with all my strength, so you don’t need to worry, Inspector Nakamori,” Hakuba says with a smile.

“It seems you aren’t talking about Kid at all.. Well, you are in that kind of age too, huh? You might be a little smug and annoying as heck, but I know you can do it,” Inspector Nakamori pats his shoulder before he walks away.

Hakuba snorts, does that old man even know what he is talking about…

Hakuba turns into the cloudy night sky outside the window. He wonders if the bad feeling he gets is because of his paranoia or a premonition of something.

o0o0o0o

For this once, Hakuba’s goal isn’t to capture Kid. He just wants to make sure about his deduction. He didn’t bother to find any Kid’s magic trick to escape, he didn’t bother to protect the jewel. He was so focused to get to Kid once he stole the gem.

But, it might be Kid was doing the same thing.

Once he got the gem in his hand, he escaped under the smoke and disappeared. There was no special magic trick, no sweet talking, Kid was so focused, it felt out of place.

Everything felt weird.

There was a dummy flying away outside the window and the police were chasing it.

On the other hand, Hakuba is looking into the sky. A sudden light rain shower, Kid can’t use his hang glider under this weather. The forecast didn’t mention any rain, so probably Kid didn’t expect this too.

Hakuba takes his phone. Since this is only a light rain shower, it will stop soon. Once it stops, Kid can use his hang glider to escape from the neighborhood swarming with police. But, he will need some height to use his hang glider. Once Hakuba tries to find a deserted tall building, he finds one near the museum.

He can be wrong, but it's worth a shoot.

Once he gets into the building, Hakuba feels a shiver under his spine.

He blames it into his cold and soaked body.

He takes out the stun gun in his hand. Hakuba walks carefully, as quietly as possible. He might be wrong. Kid might run away using other ways, changing his clothes and blend into a crowd or hide somewhere else until police lift the parameter.

Deep inside his heart, Hakuba hopes he finds nothing.

He walks into the stairs, onto the rooftop. The building is really empty, if something happens here, he wonders if anyone will know.

There is some noise from the rooftop and Hakuba stops in his tracks. The door is opened a little and he peeks from the gap.

There are some people dressed all back standing in front of the door, their backs facing him. Hakuba can’t see Kid, but then he can hear his voice.

“This isn’t the jewel you want, I have checked.”

Hakuba is more alarmed to see that the group are pointing their gun at their front, probably to Kid. Hakuba’s hands are trembling so hard suddenly.

So, he is right. He is right about some enemies using guns on Kid. But there is not only two or three, but five people in front of him.

He should call the police…

No, once the police are here, they would be gone.

Maybe, Hakuba should just run away and pretend he didn’t see anything.

Like hell he can do that.

At least he needs to make sure Kid can handle it.

And he also needs some evidence about these people.

Hakuba sees a window on the other side of the door. He grinds his teeth, trying to stop his trembling body. Hakuba climbs the window, his heart almost stops when his landing has a soft thud sound on the floor. But people are still talking, it seems they don’t notice him yet.

Hakuba circling the wall, finally he can see the suspicious group of people with Kid in front of them. Kid is facing them, with his back toward the fence. That phantom Kid should be able to just turn and run away, but they are busy talking about something.

“I wonder when you will stop chasing me…”

“We won’t, until we find what we want. You know that. But, honestly we start to think you are such an eyesore and keep giving us so much trouble.”

“So, are you thinking of eliminating me?”

Hakuba takes out his phone, planning to record everything before he finds something red on the other side of Kid head.

Is that… laser?

It is on Kid’s blind side. Since Kid is talking to people in front of him and also focusing into their gun, Hakuba knows that the thief doesn’t notice that red dot laser on his body.

Hakuba looks around and finds a building taller not too far from here. He can see the shadow of a sniper.

No…

He is hidden behind the water tank, so probably the sniper doesn’t see him.

But, Kid--

The red laser dot is on his head, on his blind side. Even if Hakuba screams for him to get down, the other men will shoot Kid with their gun. Kid is surrounded in front of and on his back too.

Hakuba has been pondering about a lot of things since his discovery of the bullet hole. Why is he doing this? Why does it have to be him? Does he have to do it? Should he save Kid from his enemy?

But this time, he already moves before he can think.

Hakuba opens the cartridge of his stun gun and throws it to the other side of the rooftop.

As expected, the stun gun makes a small explosion because of short circuit.

“What is that!?”

All of the eyes turn into the exploded stun gun and Hakuba uses that chance to run into Kid.

To think he will use the same trick to divert people's attention like a magician, what an irony.

Hakuba can tell that Kid is shocked to see him. He throws a bomb and Hakuba’s vision is covered with smoke but, it is too late, his body collides with something soft.

And suddenly, his left arm burns.

“AAAH!” He screams while blindly grabbing someone that he collided with. His body falls toward the floor and his head hits something hard.

And Hakuba blacks out.

o0o0o0o

“Tante-san! Tantei-san! TANTEI-SAN!”

Kaito can’t help but scream. He didn’t think Hakuba was there and saw everything. He didn’t think that the detective would run to him. At first he thought the detective wanted to capture him or something. But then when the body went limp on top of his body and Kaito could feel warm liquid soaked his hands, Kaito jumped from the building with the detective in his hands.

He could hear more gunshot, he could hear people shouts at his back, but Kaito didn’t care.

He landed on a dark alley. He couldn’t fly too long using his hang glider with all this weight.

And his eyes widened to see a bloody detective on his embrace.

There is a gunshot wound on his left arm and an open wound on his head. He is bleeding quite heavily, soaking his shirt and blazer. The bullet might have hit the artery.

And now here is Kaito, losing all his poker face and screaming his voice out.

“Bochama!”

Kaito turns and sees Jii running toward him.

“Jii-chan!” he shouts in relief. He carries the bleeding Hakuba on his arm.

“Isn’t that…” Jii is speechless, but Kaito rushes into the car quickly.

“There is no time Jii-chan! Lets go to the hospital! Right now!”

Kaito changes into normal clothes quickly then he pushes the wound on Hakuba’s left arm using his white mantle. The detective looks pale, with all the bleeding on top of his face, he looks even paler than he usually is.

“Don’t dare you die on me Hakuba, I will curse you, I will find a way to curse you even if I have to sell my soul to Akako, I will curse you if you died on me…”

Kaito knows he is talking nonsense, but he doesn’t care. He feels like crying if he doesn’t do that. When he hoped Hakuba would leave him alone, he didn’t mean it like this.

He really didn’t mean it like this.

Why are all the detectives so troublesome? Why can’t they just run away from danger?

Just why….

Jii sees a twinkling light on the rear mirror and his eyes widen to see Kaito crying while putting pressure on Hakuba’s wound. The old man doesn’t say anything, he just steps on the gas pedal faster.

**To Be Continued**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What a cliffhanger! Sorry, it gets too long if I don't stop here. I hope what I write makes sense since I have trouble to translate the story inside my head into the actual English story, not to mention English isn't my first language. See you in next chapter!


	3. The Silence is (Not) Golden

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for kudos and comments! I'm still continuing this. Even without beta reader, I'm doing my best! Please enjoy the new chapter!

People said that memories are time. Past is saved in people's memories. So, losing consciousness is the same as losing time. 

So, as a person who is obsessed with time, Hakuba hates losing consciousness the most. 

People can lose consciousness for hours, days to years. Hakuba’s nightmare is to wake up and realize that he has lost consciousness for years. Or maybe he reads too many fictions. 

Therefore when he opens his eyes then he can’t remember what day or time it is, he becomes panicked. Though, because a wave of pain suddenly attacks him, Hakuba’s attention shifts to the source of the pain. He closes his eyes again and grunts in pain. His left arm is hurting so badly and his head throbs so bad. 

Gosh, what is wrong with all of this?

“Saguru-botchama?”

That is a familiar voice, Hakuba feels calm to hear that. He opens his eyes slowly and searches the source of voice. 

“Baaya?”

He just realizes how dry and sore his throat is. It feels hurt to talk. 

“Please calm down, Saguru-botchama, I will call the doctor for you.”

Hakuba only nods weakly and closes his eyes again. He can feel himself drowning in a panicked mind. What time is it? What day is it? Where is he? What happened to him? Why is it so hurting? 

Hakuba takes a few deep breaths and slowly tries to answer his own questions. 

For time and day, let's just ask Baaya later, since he doesn’t have his pocket watch. 

Right, he is in a hospital. There is an IV drip and Baaya is calling the doctor. 

And… Did he get shot? Hakuba can vaguely remember him crashing into Kid and his left arm felt burning, then his head hit something.

With his right hand, Hakuba traces the bandage around his head. He doesn’t even dare to touch his left arm, because it hurts a lot. 

Then, how about Kid? What happened to him? Did he get shot? Did he die?

Probably no, or at least, Kid is still alive. It must be Kid who saved him when Hakuba lost his consciousness. 

When the door of his room blasts open so loudly, Hakuba almost jumps in his bed. 

“HAKUBA-KUN!?”

Hakuba is in shock to see Inspector Nakamori on the edge of his bed. There are some other detectives following him. 

Wait, Hakuba isn’t done sorting his mind yet. He wants to scream and kicks the guest out from his room. Please give him more time and space… he pleads in his head. 

But, Hakuba just sighs and resigns to his fate. He understands that this must be an emergency situation. He can’t really blame Inspector Nakamori for being impatient. 

“Finally you are awake! You have been losing consciousness for three days!” Inspector Nakamori says with a worried face. 

Not the best way to tell Hakuba about how long he lost his consciousness. Hakuba takes a deep breath, trying to calm his itching hand to find his pocket watch. 

“I see,” Hakuba says. Now after he sees Inspector Nakamori better, he can see how disheveled that detective is. 

“Not just ‘I see’!” Inspector Nakamori scolds him. So even when Hakuba is being ridden in a hospital bed with a shot wound can’t stop that harsh detective from scolding him. “What actually happened! The whole 2nd division was in shock when we found out you got shot right after Kid’s heist! You are still under my supervision, so you are my responsibility too.”

Such a nice sentiment, but Inspector Nakamori is so loud. Hakuba reaches his bandaged head. All this shouting makes his head throbbing harder. 

“Senpai, you can’t shout in the hospital,” one of the junior detectives says. 

“Oh right…,” Hakuba can hear slight guilt in Inspector Nakamori’s words. 

Hakuba sighs in relief, at least the shouting has stopped. 

“We have been waiting for you to regain consciousness for three whole days, Hakuba-kun. Can you imagine the son of Superintendent is shot! The whole metropolitan police is in chaos. We don’t have any clue what happened. Someone brought you to the hospital and left you alone in the emergency room. And you were wearing a bullet proof jacket! As if you knew you would get shot! We want to know what happened Hakuba-kun!”

One of the other detectives speaks. “Well, it was good you wore one though. There is a bullet mark on your back too. If you didn’t wear one, you would be fatally wounded.”

Hakuba blinks, now that explains why he feels dull pain on his back.

“I know this must be hard for you, but please tell me what has happened. So that we can start the investigation right now,” Inspector Nakamori says with a calmer tone, but his desperate eyes show otherwise. 

Hakuba is ready to spill out everything that has been bothering him ever since he found the bullet hole. To handle everything alone is quite heavy, to be paranoid of everyone is tiring. In the end, he is just a high school student. He can only handle so much. He never even dreamed of getting shot before he became a police officer. 

But before Hakuba opens his mouth, he stares at two other Inspector Nakamori’s juniors.

_ No… _

Even if he can believe in Inspector Nakamori, he can’t believe in those two people. 

That strange mafia organisation can erase the trace of the bullet hole so easily, without anyone noticing. There must be an infiltrator in the police department. 

And more, Hakuba has seen those people dressed in black. Even though he only saw a glance of them, he can recognize them if they ever meet again. He is the witness of Kid’s attempt of murder now. 

They have a reason to kill him too now. 

“Hakuba-kun?”

Hakuba reaches his bandaged head. What should he do now? Unlike Kid who hides his identity, Hakuba is an easy prey. Hakuba thinks they know who he is. He can be killed anytime, anywhere, without a hitch. 

Hakuba doesn’t even know who he has to believe in this situation, beside some people. He doesn’t know if he can depend on anyone for this problem. 

“Hakuba-kun, are you okay?”

Hakuba rubbed his bandaged head again. 

Suddenly, he gets an idea. 

This is his only choice, if Kid can hide his identity then Hakuba can do this too. 

“I’m sorry Inspector Nakamori, but… I can’t remember…,” Hakuba closes his eyes. He is focused onto the dull throbs on his head. If the pain hasn’t stopped even three days after the incident, his head trauma must be quite serious. 

It should be believable. 

“What-- what do you mean---” Inspector Nakamor is speechless, but before he can say anything anymore, the door is opened. 

Hakuba almost wants to sigh in relief to see his Baaya, a doctor and a nurse come inside. 

Good timing. 

“Excuse me, but I need to examine the patient,” the doctor politely says. The nurse drives away the police detectives out, while Baaya sits beside Hakuba’s bedside. 

Now, Hakuba gets a little time to think. 

He wonders if he can do all of this alone. 

o0o0o0o0o

“So, you can’t remember what has happened to you?” the doctor asks in surprise. Hakuba swallows the guilt so he can lie more. 

“Yeah, I don’t know how in the world I get shot either,” he says. 

The doctor looks concerned. “How much you don’t remember?” he asks. 

“Only about how I get these injuries. I still remember the Kid’s heist I attended before, but after that… I can’t remember anything,” Hakuba says again. 

“Based on the CT-scan before the operation, you have a mild concussion, but I think you need to get CT-scan once again, are there any other symptoms?”

“Besides pains and headache, I think no…,” Hakuba says. 

The doctor nods. “Let's schedule more throughout brain examination tomorrow, for now, just rest well.” The nurse writes on her notes and nods. Hakuba glanced at Baaya who seemed ready to burst in tears anytime soon. 

As soon as the doctor and the nurse excuse themselves, the police officers come in again. Inspector Nakamori seems ready to fume, but fortunately, he holds back his voice for Hakuba’s sake. 

“Is it true? You can’t remember anything? You?” 

Hakuba almost wants to laugh in irony. It must be so unbelievable for someone with photographic memory like him, to forget about an important incident that almost got him killed. 

But, he needs to do this for his own safety. 

“Unfortunately, yes, Inspector Nakamori. I can still remember the heist, after everyone chased after Kid’s dummy, I thought Kid would hide himself in a deserted building and fly away after the rain stopped. I can still remember when I got into the building, but after that… I can’t remember anything else.”

Hakuba isn’t the best actor, unlike Kid. But he can do his own poker face. Even though it is hard to lie like this, he needs to do this. He needs to deceive everyone about this. If he can’t remember then Kid’s enemy might reconsider to kill him for now. 

Hakuba is still the son of the superintendent police department. If he dies unnaturally, it will cause suspicion, not to mention he also got shot before. If he can make people believe that he has amnesia, then those people dressed in black might lose their reason to kill him. It won't be worth all of the risk. 

Maybe…

Hakuba isn’t sure. He is just desperate. 

He is in a disadvantaged place now, he has to make sure he can survive first before he investigates this incident further. 

“How can that be… are you sure you can’t remember anything? Is it Kid? Is it anyone else?” Inspector Nakamori looks lost. Hakuba can imagine how pressuring it is to let his superior’s son get shot under his watch, and now he almost has no clue how to investigate this case. 

Hakuba will try to make up for all of this lying back later, at least he will try to not get Inspector Nakamori get suspended or demoted from his rank. Even if that means he has to beg his father. 

“I can’t remember, I’m sorry,” Hakuba can’t even see into Inspector Nakamori’s eyes. He hopes no one can detect a guilt in his face. Or he hopes people will think his guilt is for not remembering, not about something else. 

“This isn’t your fault Hakuba-kun, you are the victim here. The bad one is the one who did this to you,” Inspector Nakamori says with heavy eyes. 

But Hakuba was the one who jumped into Kid, letting himself get shot instead of the phantom thief. 

Hakuba didn’t know that he might have some hero complex in him. 

“But, why were you wearing the bulletproof jacket?” the other detective asks again. 

Hakuba almost stares at him suspiciously. What’s with his strange fixation over the bulletproof jacket...

“Just in case. While I was checking Kid’s previous heist, the heist can be quite dangerous. So, I decided to wear it,” Hakuba says nonchalantly, trying to make it less suspicious. 

Because he can’t mention anything about the unrecorded bullet hole. He can’t add more reason for the mafia group to kill him. 

For now, he has to play dumb. 

“I understand. Do you remember which building you went back then? We might still get some clues from there,” Inspector Nakamori asks him. 

“I still remember that,” Hakuba says. He specifically says he still remembers about the building, because he hopes the police can get the proof themselves. Hakuba might be able to guide them to find out about that mysterious mafia group. 

Hakuba tells the location of the building and finally Inspector Nakamori regains some color in his face. 

“Okay, thank you. At least, we still have a clue to investigate. You can rest now, Hakuba-kun. Leave this to the police first, at least, until you can join us after you get better,” Inspector Nakamori cheers him up. 

Hakuba nods, he understands he can’t do anything in this state. 

“Please inform me if you find something, Inspector Nakamori,” he says before the police detectives leave his room. Nakamori nods to him before he closes the door. 

o0o0o0o0o

Hakuba never played a game, but he is quite a bookworm. There is a time when he finds a fictional character way too overpowering until it feels so unrealistic. But he just found out, something like that exists in real life.

“So, the building has been demolished?”

“Yes, we were too late.”

Hakuba can only sigh with a heavy heart. Then again, the building was really deserted. Usually you can still find homeless people living in an abandoned building like that. But that night, it was really empty.

“It has been scheduled to be demolished since a few months ago, so it might be just our bad luck.”

Hakuba stares at one of the detectives. They are from division one, because Hakuba’s case is assasination attempt so it is in their jurisdiction.

“Can you be more serious, Takagi-kun?”

“Oh, I’m sorry, Miwako-san.”

“Please excuse him, I know you are the one who gets frustrated the most about it, Hakuba-kun.”

Hakuba isn’t too familiar with detectives from the first division, even though he has met them several times. Not that Hakuba is familiar with most of the detectives from the second division either. . 

And talking about frustration, surprisingly he receives the news quite well. Maybe because he has been half expecting this to happen. He also didn’t think the police would find any strong clues from that building either, even if it wasn’t destroyed. If it is that easy, Kid might have done something about this mafia group. There were times Kid led the police to capture the real suspect. 

But for this big mafia group, Kid hasn’t given any clue to the police. 

Hakuba thinks that is weird. 

Maybe it is because the bad guys are unbelievably strong. So, Kid is being extra careful around them, if not then there will be casualties. 

Hakuba grabs his left arm gently, yeah, like him. 

“But don’t worry, we will dig more about this demolished building. There are witnesses saying about some thugs using this place as their basecamp, I’m sure we can find something if we investigate it more,” Miwako says. 

“Is there any other thing you remembered, Hakuba-kun?” Takagi asks. 

Hakuba shakes his head. “I’m sorry, but I can’t remember anything about the incident at all,” he says. 

The two detectives look deflated, but they try not to show it for Hakuba’s sake. The british detective tries not to show his guilt to them. 

“No, it is okay. I can’t imagine how you feel about being a victim, but not remembering anything. It must be hard for you too, Hakuba-kun,” Takagi says. 

Hakuba almost grimaces at those words. He wonders how Kaito does this, Hakuba feels so guilty for deceiving many sincere people.

“Now, we should be going. Please rest well, Hakuba-kun. So, you can join us sooner. We will contact you if we find something new,” Miwako says. She and Takagi bid farewell. 

Hakuba massages his head. Should he celebrate because he is still living until today? Hakuba wonders. He has been quite paranoid in the hospital. It doesn’t change much even after he moves into his own home. 

At least, his plan is working. About deceiving everyone, even though he is burdened with the guilt. But, he is still living. 

Hakuba tries to be optimistic about this. 

The blonde glances to the window. He can see a particular dove, sitting on the branch of a tree not too far from the window. It is sort of calming to see, at least, he isn’t the only one who is being paranoid here. 

But, enough is enough. 

That dove has been following him for an entire week. Hakuba needs his privacy back. 

So, with a sling on his left arm, he walks off from the bed and opens the window. 

“You know, I’m an animal lover,” Hakuba says to no one, but he stares at the dove. He wonders if Kid uses something to eavesdrop on his conversation. 

“But, a week is enough right? If you still stalk me using your dove like this, I will let Watson to chase your dove away. Poor bird, I don’t want to traumatize it, so don’t make me do that,” Hakuba puts his most serious face. 

It is the last thing he would ever do toward an innocent animal. He can imagine how Watson would be happy to chase the dove away, even if Hakuba can stop him from eating the poor bird, but it would be very traumatizing for it to get chased by a big falcon like Watson. 

_ Heck, _ Hakuba never brings Watson to Kid’s heist either, even though it might be fun to let the falcon scare the hell out of the phantom thief and his birds. Because Hakuba is an animal lover.

Watson and Kid’s doves deserve better than that kind of treatment. 

Hakuba closes the window, he hopes Kid will listen to him and not stupid enough to challenge Watson using his doves. 

o0o0o0o0o

“He threatens me using his monstrous falcon, Jii-chan! That damn brit! Does he even know why I do this! I’m trying to protect him!”

Kaito wails and lets his head dramatically fall onto the table. Jii is holding back his chuckles. 

“Jii-chan, I’m serious!” Kaito whines. 

“I know, Botchama. But, your friend might have found it crossed the line,” Jii simply says. He offers a glass of hot chocolate for the young magician. 

“He isn’t my friend,” Kaito pouts while drinking the sweet drink. 

Jii just shakes his head. He can’t understand Kaito really well about this, teenager just being a teenager he guesses.

“I can’t believe he has amnesia though. I just can’t believe it. He must be lying,” Kaito says again. 

“But it is a good thing, right? The organization might reconsider to finish him off for now,” Jii says. 

“Yeah, for now. But, it just makes me… so mad about him! Does he think he can handle this alone!? He should just tell someone in the police department! They will believe him! They will protect him! Or he can hide somewhere until forever! Heck, he can even just go back to England! Who does he think he is!? A main character of shounen manga?”

Jii rarely sees Kaito fuming like this. Maybe, he has been holding back ever since Hakuba got shot. 

“Yeah, he is just like you, Botchama.”

Kaito closes his mouth and he looks like he is going to explode again. But then he just pouts and turns his head away. 

“At least I’m hiding my identity.”

“And he has amnesia.”

“Jii-chan, you are supposed to be on my side!” Kaito whines again with a fake betrayed voice. 

Jii almost wants to laugh. Kaito always tries to make the situation funnier when it should have been dead serious. 

“Then, how about you work together with him and defeat the organization together? Hakuba-kun is a detective and a son of the Superintendent police department, he will be a valuable ally.”

Kaito’s poker face is back in the blink of an eye. 

“No.”

A short answer, but Jii won’t ask why. 

He remembers Kaito’s tears last week. 

Maybe that is why. 

“Then, what will you do, Botchama?”

Kaito sighs and looks out the window. 

“I need to put an eye on him, for a while I guess. That brit certainly knows something, I don’t know to what degree, but I won’t let him be involved again with that organization anymore,” Kaito says. 

“But, he threatens you about using your dove,” Jii states the matter. 

“Well then I guess I will just use the traditional way,” Kaito frowns. 

Jii blinks, to think Kaito is the one who will stalk Hakuba now. It is funny how they switched their role like this, but Jii won’t say anything about it.

o0o0o0o0o0o

  
  


For who’s sake he is doing this?

Hakuba stares on the sling. He can do it, his left arm will be very sore but he can do it. He doesn’t really want to draw unnecessary attention. Even if the stitch from operation to remove the bullet and repair his artery has been removed, his left arm still feels very heavy and stiff. 

But he doesn’t want to keep lying, so he leaves the sling at his room. 

Baaya doesn’t say anything, her worried face is enough to tell him what she feels about it. 

Hakuba still uses a plaster on his stitched forehead though. In case Kaito doubts his amnesia, Hakuba will try to at least make him confused about the truth. But it doesn’t like Kaito will voiced his doubt just like that, since Hakuba’s assination attempt is a classified case. 

Well, just in case…

“Hakuba-kun, are you hurt?”

Hakuba blinks his eyes and turns to see his classmate, Aoko. Even though he has been explaining several times about the wound on his head to other people, he doesn’t mean to explain it again to Aoko. 

“Yesh, I’m involved in some incident during a case, nothing serious though, don’t worry,” he says. 

He isn’t lying, technically. 

“I see, please tell me if you need my help,” she says again. 

Hakuba smiles at her, she is quite a sweet girl, as long as she doesn’t hold a mop and chase Kaito around. 

“Thank you, Aoko-san,” he says. Speaking at Kaito, Hakuba glances at the number one suspect of Kaito Kid in his head. 

Kaito is sleeping on his desk. Not too weird, since Kaito’s night job probably makes him lose sleep often. 

Maybe that means Hakuba can expect another heist soon. 

But when one of the classmates shoves Hakuba’s left side slightly, Hakuba hisses in pain and he sees Kaito chokes in his chair. So, Kaito is just pretending to sleep. 

Kaito is probably avoiding him now, for some kind of reason. Usually, Kaito will butt in and make fun of Hakuba’s wound, calling him by name, like ‘lousy detective’ or something. 

Maybe because Hakuba got hurt to protect him, so it becomes awkward for both of them. 

Hakuba has enough on his plate for worrying about his safety, the pain from his wounds, deceiving everyone about his memory, so Hakuba doesn’t really care about how Kaito feels about him, at this moment. 

If only Kid wants to work together with him, it will make a lot of things easier. Is saving a person from death doesn’t count as a shortcut to friendship?

Probably not. 

Still, Hakuba thinks Kaito owes him something, admitting about his other identity would be a good start to repay the deed. 

Hakuba snorts and sits in his chair. 

Not like it will be that easy. 

He wonders what Kaito will do about him. 

Hakuba just hopes Kaito won’t make things harder than it actually is.

Hakuba remembers something, he checks around his chair and table. At least Kaito has a decency not to use any listening device on him at school, though Hakuba knows Kaito is watching him closely even if he is pretending to sleep.

“Kaito, why are you sleeping in the morning!? Get up, class will start soon!”

“Stupid Aoko! Let me sleep!”

“Don’t tell me you are secretly peeking into someone’s skirt by pretending to sleep!?”

“I don’t do that, at least, not today!”

“What!?”

At least this part of Hakuba’s life is still normal, Hakuba smiles bitterly. It is refreshing to hear Aoko and Kaito’s bickering after a long time. Maybe, it means Kaito is in better shape than Hakuba thinks he is. 

Ah damn, even if Hakuba has enough things to worry, in the end he still worries about Kaito, huh?

What an irony. They aren’t even friends.

If the situation isn’t as life threatening as it is, Hakuba might want to laugh about his life now. He got shot, a mafia group is now haunting his life, a phantom thief is shadowing him for only-he-knows-why, and Hakuba needs to play dumb to everyone for God-only-knows-how-long. 

This is ridiculous. Gosh, Hakuba wants to have a long vacation after all of this end. 

**To Be Continued**   
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love to build the relationship between Hakuba and Kaito, though, platonic as friends. If only Kaito and Hakuba can just work together, the story will be easier to write but less fun to read, I guess, hahaha.


End file.
